American Hostage In Taped Plea

[David]

AP


An American hostage pleaded for his life with a rifle pointed at his head in a video released Tuesday while eight Iraqis died in fierce clashes and gunmen assassinated a senior judge in slayings highlighting security risks ahead of this weekend's elections.

Interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi also said the time was not right to talk of a U.S. troop withdrawal and that Iraq must first build up its security forces to confront insurgents.

In the video, hostage Roy Hallums spoke slowly, rubbing his hands as he sat with the barrel of the rifle inches from his head. He said he had been arrested by a "resistance group" because "I have worked with American forces." He appealed to Arab leaders, including Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, to act to save his life.

Hallums, 56, was seized Nov. 1 along with Filipino Robert Tarongoy during an armed assault on their compound in Baghdad's Mansour district. The two were working for a Saudi company that does catering for the Iraqi army. The Filipino was not shown.

"I am please asking for help because my life is in danger because it's been proved I worked for American forces," the bearded Hallums said. "I'm not asking for any help from President Bush because I know of his selfishness and unconcern for those who've been pushed into this hellhole."

Hallums said he was asking for help from "Arab rulers especially President Moammar Gadhafi because he's known for helping those who are suffering."

In December, his wife, Susan Hallums of Corona, Calif., said she has not heard from the kidnappers. "I want to plead for his life and send out prayers and hope that he will be released," said Susan Hallums, who is separated from her husband, the father of their two daughters.
In other developments:


White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday the administration was preparing to outline its request for more money for Iraq and Afghanistan. He would provide no detail, but congressional aides said the package would total about $80 billion and be mostly for U.S. military operations in the two countries.


A U.S. Bradley Fighting Vehicle rolled into a canal during a combat patrol, killing five American soldiers from the Army's 1st Infantry Division and wounding two others, the military said Tuesday. The accident occurred during the patrol near the town of Khan Bani Saad during fierce sandstorms Monday night. The military said the accident was under investigation.


Another U.S. soldier died of wounds from a roadside bomb that blasted an American patrol in Baghdad, the military said Tuesday.


Gunmen in northern Iraq kidnapped a senior official in the Iraqi Communist Party, Mohammed Nouri Aqrawi, in the city of Mosul, a party official said.


Attackers blasted a school to be used as a polling station with machine gun fire in the central city of Diwaniyah, but no one was injured, a Polish military spokesman said Tuesday.


Human Rights Watch released a report Tuesday documenting the abuse of detainees by Iraq's fledgling, U.S.-trained security forces. With few exceptions, Iraqi authorities have not acted to stop the mistreatment, the report said. International police advisers, largely funded by the U.S. government, "have turned a blind eye to these rampant abuses," it said. Human Rights Watch said it interviewed 90 detainees in Iraq, of whom 72 claimed to have been tortured or abused.

Fighting erupted Tuesday in Baghdad's eastern Rashad neighborhood as police fired on insurgents who were handing out leaflets warning people not to vote in Sunday's national elections.

About the same time nearby, insurgents opened fire on police who were checking a report of a possible car bomb.

Another bomb blew off the gate of a secondary school in the neighborhood and gunmen opened fire on Iraqi and U.S. forces responding to the blast.

In all, three policemen were killed and nine were wounded in the clashes, according to an official at Kindi Hospital. Two insurgents died and a shopkeeper also was killed in the crossfire. Earlier, officials reported 11 policemen were killed and offered no explanation for the revised toll.

Officials have warned of a surge in violence around the elections, which insurgents have vowed to disrupt.

The slain judge was identified as Qais Hashim Shameri, secretary general of the judges council in the Justice Ministry. Assailants sprayed his car with bullets in an attack that also wounded the judge's driver.

Assailants also shot and killed a man who worked for a district council in western Baghdad as he was on his way to work, police said.

In a third ambush, gunmen firing from a speeding car wounded three staffers from the Communications Ministry as they were going to work, police Lt. Iyman Abdul-Hamid said. The three workers, one of them a woman with serious injuries, were rushed to a hospital.

Attackers also shot and killed the son of an Iraqi translator working with U.S. troops, police said.

Allawi said U.S. troops could not be withdrawn until Iraq builds up its security forces.

"Others spoke about the immediate withdrawal or setting a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational forces," Allawi told reporters. "I will not deal with the security matter under political pretexts and exaggerations that do not serve Iraq and its people."

"I will not set final dates" for the withdrawal of international forces "because setting final dates will be futile and dangerous," Allawi said.

Allawi promised to "build a strong Iraqi security force" that will be able to take responsibility for protecting Iraqis who participate in the election.

There has been speculation that the new Iraqi government to be chosen after the weekend elections might ask the Americans to begin negotiations for their departure from the country ? as demanded by Sunni Arab insurgents as well as members of the Sunni clergy.

However, none of the major political figures contesting the election has publicly called for such a step.